The Tale of Torvo
by Unsuspectful Stone
Summary: This man isn't the Dragonborn, he isn't some mystical hero, and he's not some incarnation of a god. All he is and ever will be is a man. Of course, just because he's a man doesn't mean he can't have his own interesting tales to tell, is it? No, it isn't. This is a collection of a simple man's journey through life, enjoy. OC galore.


**The Tale of Torvo**

Written by: The Unsuspectful Stone

I heard the sound of a horse's hooves and the wooden wheels of a cart, along with the sound of a breeze rustling the leaves of the trees that surrounded me. I slowly opened my eyes, I looked down at my hands and saw my wrists bounded with rope. I looked at my clothing, they were replaced with horrible rags, and Julianos knows what had happened to my old clothing.

"Hey, you finally woke up." A voice said.

I looked up and saw a yellow-haired Nord talking to me. I instantly recognized the armor he was wearing. He was of the Stormcloaks, the rebellion against the Imperials in Skyrim.

"You tried to cross the border, right?" He asked. I simply nodded, there was no point in lying now. I decided to look around, maybe I could find an escape. The people in the cart, excluding me and the Stormcloak was a brown haired man, a short blonde girl, and a man wearing a thick pelt of fur. He had a piece of cloth covering his mouth, for reason I did not know.

The brown-haired man spoke. "Hey, you and me, we shouldn't be here; it's these Stormcloaks these Imperials want. If it wasn't for you, I would've stolen that horse and have been halfway to Cyrodil!"

"Shut up." I said, silencing him. "Whining won't help you out of here, horse-thief." The man looked down at his feet. I swore that I heard the girl chuckle. I looked at her, she seemed rather young, maybe… 20, at the least, which was my age. I looked at the Stormcloak, his facial hair made him seem in his 30s or 40s, but I guessed that at most he was in his late 20s. The man with the pelt, I could tell from his eyes that this man had seen a lot of things. I couldn't tell exactly how old he was, but he seemed to be incredibly experienced.

After only a few minutes we entered a town. "Helgen," The Stormcloak said. "I used to be sweet on a girl here…"

"Who was she?" I asked.

"Oh, her name was Debba, she had long black hair and an amazing smile, but that was just when I was a lad, and she left Skyrim a long time ago." The man looked at the towering walls and sentries scattered around the perimeter of the town, he gave a small chuckle. "Funny, Imperial walls and towers used to make me feel so safe."

Then, the carts stopped. "Oh no, why are we stopping?" The brown-haired man said, with barely-hidden fear in his voice.

"What do you think? End of the line…" The Stormcloak answered.

"What!? No, no!" The man yelled at the guards. "Please, let me go! I'm no Stormcloak! You don't want me!" But no one listened.

We were soon brought up in front of two people. The one on the left, a seemingly Redguard woman. She wore the armor of an Imperial captain, beside her, was a Nord man. He wore the basic Imperial soldier armor, and he held a list. He began reading the names off of it.

"Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak," The man with the pelt walked on. "It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric." The Stormcloak man said. "Ralof of Riverwood," The Stormcloak walked on.

I had tuned out now, having lost interest in the names, when suddenly, I heard the voice of the horse-thief. "You can't kill me!" I turned my head and saw him running as fast as he could, only to be ended by an arrow piercing his legs.

"Vinnia, of Dragon Bridge." The blonde girl walked up.

Then, the Imperials looked at me with slight confusion. "Captain, he's not on the list." The soldier said.

"Forget the list, he goes to the block." My eyes widened, the block!? This was insane, all I had done was try to cross the border and I was going to be executed! I tried to say something but then I saw the horse-thief's body, lying on the ground. He silenced me. I walked to the block with my head down, between the blond girl and the Stormcloak.

Suddenly, we heard a roar come from the sky, we had no idea what it was, but the captain had us continue anyway. The priestess began reciting the prayers, the blessings of the eight divines, all of that. But the man sent to the block had told her to shut up, which I think had caused the blonde girl to chuckle again. He also had brown hair, but was wearing the armor of the Stormcloaks, he looked at the Imperials with his head on the block.

"My ancestors are smiling at me, Imperials. Can you say the same?" And with that, the executioner brought down his axe, cutting the man's head clean off. The girl jumped back a little bit, everybody else was calm, though, including me. Then, we heard the roar again, people seemed to be a bit more wary now, not sure what the source was. The captain still had us continue.

"The renegade from Cyrodil!" I cringed, that was me. Slowly, I walked up to the block and my head was laid down, I looked into the eyes of the executioner, his face was straight, and it looked like he was blind in his right eye. He rose the axe, I shut my eyes. But then, I heard the roar again. I opened my eyes and saw the sky swirling about, instead of blue, it was red.

Then, a dragon landed onto the watchtower! Roaring again, the entire lot was instantly engulfed in screams and shouts of terror. It shot a wave of air through its mouth, knocking me off of the block and onto the ground. I got up quickly and ran to the nearest escape.

With my hands still bound, keeping balance was difficult. I looked behind me to see the dragon breathing fire onto the soldiers that surrounded it. The blonde girl was running behind me, with a look of terror equal to mine. We dashed to the right into a small house. Seeing the dragon land just outside its door. It blew fire at some man, who somehow was able to dodge it and run into another house.

Without saying a word we ran out the back door of the house and dashed around the perimeter of the houses, near the wall. We passed several houses and what I assumed to be a forge. We kept running, through the screams and the fire and the fallen debris. We then saw what we were looking for, the gate which we had used to enter Helgen. Using the last ounces of our strength we sprinted out of the gate and out of the village.

We ran for at least 10 more minutes, until we were both sure that we were well clear of the village, and that dragon. The girl collapsed onto the ground, her legs had given out, my own legs felt like they were on fire, so I sat down as well. Onto the cool green grass. I looked down at our hands, they were both still bounded. I looked around for something that could be used to cut them, when my eyes came across a sharp looking stone.

Perfect, I leaned over to it and put my ropes binding over the sharp edge. Then, I rubbed my wrist back and forth, it was amazingly tedious, the rock wasn't as sharp as I had thought, but after a few more minutes, I heard my bindings snap. I smiled at myself, and looked back at the girl, she was still out of it. She had come from Dragon Bridge, I would've half expected her to have a bit more… endurance.

I walked over to her and shook her shoulder, she woke up instantly.

"Hey, you alright?" I asked, simply.

"Y-Yeah, I think so…" She looked to the ground, and then her hands, which were still bound. "That really was a dragon, wasn't it?"

"I'm afraid so…" I sat beside her. "Just a minute…" I took her wrists and began untying the ropes, they came off quickly enough.

"Thank you," She said, rubbing her wrists. "I'm still finding it hard to believe… everything had happened so fast."

"Same here… hey, what was your name again? I forgot." I said back.

She smiled kindly and replied. "Vinnia, and you?"

"Torvo, Torvo Righgrander." I replied.


End file.
